Musings Along Life's Way: Holy Week

Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. Those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. -- John 12:24-25

I abandoned and forgot myself,
laying my face on my Beloved;
all things ceased;
I went out from myself,
leaving my caresforgotten among the lilies.
-St. John of the Cross, Dark Night of the Soul

It is Holy Week, the week between Palm Sunday and Easter, the week of Jesus' suffering and on Friday, Christ's death. During Holy Week we enter into the heart of mystery, we embrace the truth "that God's ways are not our ways." In a world where we desire order we find that that resting in the heart of things is paradox, that things are upside down: dark is light and death is life. Perhaps more mysterious still, we find our hope in such upside down thinking.
What I like about thinking upside down is that it asks you to forget everything you thought you knew. It asks you to revise all your previous formulae, your conclusions about life and invites you to open your heart to the new and previously unimagined. When John of the Cross forgets and moves out from himself, his new life in Christ opens in an new found intimacy, his face upon the Beloved. In this relationship, John finds that he leaves worry behind and that without anxiety he is free, free for God's love in and through his life.

This is Holy Week, the time when we focus on a prime symbol of the faith , the cross, that, frankly, leaves us all a bit uneasy. Perhaps it can all be summed up in a popular phrase very often heard – let go and let God. The cross is the symbol for letting go. As we let go of even that which is precious to us we are then able to awaken to God's presence. Have a good Holy Week.

Blessings, David

Holy Week Schedule
Thursday, March 20, 6 pm: Maundy Thursday Simple Meal and Worship. The meal begins at 6, the service at 7.
Easter Dawn, March 23, 8:30 am: Our early service will be out on the lawn as we welcome the risen one into our heats and lives. Easter Festival, March 23, 10:30 am: Come to our Easter Festival Worship.